Diagnosis of Trypanosoma cruzi chronic infections in humans: usefulness of the complement regulatory protein antigens and lytic antibodies in the control of cure

South America, is caused by the hemoflagellate, protozoan, Trypanosoma cruzi transmitted mainly by vector contamination and blood transfusion. The parasite is found in the vertebrate host in two stages: trypomastigotes and amastigotes. The trypo-mastigotes are first inoculated as metacyclics, which invade the host mucosa or the broken skin, through contaminated feces and urine of the tri-atoma vector. They transform and divide as intrac-ellular amastigotes, the multiplicative forms, to emerge as trypomastigotes, which circulate in the blood and re-invade various cells, promiscuously. The amastigotes are intracellular but may main-tain the cycle without trypomastigotes, as demon-strated in vitro with stage specific monoclonal an-